Less than 24 hours after Big Mac trucked into the Alberta curling championships, Mini Mac followed in his tracks.

Blake MacDonald got his wish.

He'll be joining older brother Brent at next month's Alberta men's final at the Saville Centre.

MacDonald throws last rocks for Jamie King, whose squad beat Ted Appelman for the second time this weekend at the northerns.

It was a more convincing 7-3 win in last night's B Event final rematch of last year's B final in Edson. The only difference is Appelman had no chance to win this one with his last shot.

"That's curling - sometimes you feel like you've got a guy's number," said MacDonald. "I'm sure you'll be asking me in two weeks about Randy Ferbey owning us. You just never know when it'll come to an end."

FORTUNES REVERSED

This win, and how quickly it came after the team's 8-5 loss in Saturday night's A final showed how the team's fortunes have changed since qualifying out of the C at the Last Chance Spiel.

"It's been a really tough year for us with everything that's gone on," said MacDonald.

This win means much more than a possible third crack to dethrone Randy Ferbey in the last four years. It's also another shot in the never-ending rivalry between the Cold Lake-raised brothers.

It also means Blake can have a good sleep tonight.

"That's tough," said King, relieved the team avoided the C Event treachery. "Any time you're playing against your brother, it's tough."

The King rink finally found its stride after struggling the entire playdowns, winning nine of its last 10 starts, including a 9-8 extra-end win over Chris Schille in the C semi.

PLENTY OF EXPERIENCE

"I honestly think it was good for us," said MacDonald, whose team has now played 19 times on the playdowns trail. "We played in half the spiels we normally do and life got in the way. You hate to say it was good to lose out in the zones (cities), but it turned out it was."

The field looks intimidating enough now.

"There's so many good teams there already," said King. "Who knows? We might be the 12th-seeded team by the time this is all over."

Not likely.

FINAL STRAWS: The Peace district wound up its playdowns yesterday and will be represented by Sexsmith clubmates Kurt Balderston and Rob Maksymetz ... Dean Ross joined fellow Calgarian John Morris out of the South ... the provincials field will be finalized today. A seeding system will be used, based on votes from competing teams, to determine the makeup of the two pools. Final seedings and pools are expected to be announced Wednesday.